Kombucha Wonder Drink - Jasmine Tea and Niagara Grape

Having enjoyed some of Wonder Drink's flavours, especially Himalayan, I finally had the chance to taste the last of their five flavours, Jasmine Tea and Niagara Grape. Three of them use Oolong tea, one Red tea, this one uses Jasmine tea, which I have enjoyed before (and is essentially green tea with Jasmine flavour).

Kombucha is a carbonated drink, a sweetened fermented tea or tisane, using a Mother of mushroom, or mushroom, or SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast). It is unlike any other drink I have tasted, an acquired taste to some, but good to me.

There is an underlying bitterness to this drink that I don't care for, and often comes in the first steeping of green tea (the second steeping is the sweeter, but more subtler). The Niagara Grape flavour (which comes from juice concentrate) is equal in flavour to the jasmine tea, but I don't know that the two particularly pair together well. I like the kombucha flavour of this drink, but still far prefer the Himalayan.

Fennel-salted Pork Chops with Roasted Root Vegetables

This recipe comes from the new magazine from Jamie Oliver, Issue 1 of Jamie Magazine. I have only bought and read issue 2 of his new food magazine, found it good with some interesting recipes. Jamie says that the combination of the rutabaga and the carrots highlights their natural flavours - the rutabaga's bitterness against the sweetness of the carrots. You can find the full recipe here. I omitted the spicy cabbage; instead my beautiful Bride made a favourite of mine, morning glory. The fennel was not too strong, though, I found it a little salty. The roasted vegetables were great, and something I could enjoy with other dishes, but it goes well with pork, and really was the better part of this recipe.

Fennel-salted Pork Chops with Roasted Root Vegetables
1 rutabaga, peeled and cut into wedges
4 carrots, peeled, cut into 3cm chunks
Olive oil, for tossing and drizzling
1 bulb garlic, sliced in half
A few sprigs thyme
2 pork rib chops, about 350g each, cut about 2cm thick
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp sea salt

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Toss the swede and carrots in a little olive oil, season with salt and black pepper, and place in a baking tray with the garlic halves and thyme. Cover with foil and put in the oven for about 45 minutes.

When the carrots and swede are cooked through, remove the foil and return to the oven to crisp for 10–15 minutes, turning them now and then to ensure they brown evenly.

Meanwhile, preheat a griddle to hot, and lay your chops on a board. With a pestle and mortar, grind the fennel seeds with 1 tsp salt until no whole seeds remain. Drizzle the chops with olive oil and sprinkle with the fennel salt and plenty of black pepper, rubbing over evenly.

Lay the meat in the pan, making sure it makes good contact with the griddle's ridges. Cook for 10 minutes, turning every two minutes, until cooked through. With a pair of tongs, pick the chops off the griddle and let rest for a couple of minutes.

100% Georgian Blueberry Juice

Having enjoyed their Wild Plum Juice and Cornel Juice, and liked the Mulberry Juice, when I went back to Highland Farms where I had bought the others previously, I noticed they had some bottles of juice of my favourite fruit, blueberries. So, I bought one. Now, it doesn't say wild blueberries, and European blueberries are different, in taste and colour, than North American ones. I would say that this is a pretty good juice, though it seems that a lot of them taste very similar, not in specific flavour, but in the thickness/consistency of the juice and its intensity of flavour. I think that I like the Wild Plum and Cornel better, but this one is pretty good.

Côte d'Or Expériences Pistache Noir 70%

The Belgian chocolatier Côte d'Or is the #1 chocolate brand in Belgium; I have seen several of their offerings in Shopper's Drug Mart, but never tried them. This one has pistachios, albeit caramelized small pieces, so I should like it. The beans are from West Africa and South America. The cacao content is at 70% content. The ingredient listing looks good, unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, caramelized pistachio nuts (pistachio nuts, sugar, artificial and natural flavours), cocoa powder, artificial and natural flavours and soy lecithin.

How does it taste? The chocolate is good, dark and a little sweet (probably because of the sugared pistachio), but I don't get much of the pistachio flavour, and there is a much more predominant flavour that makes the bar not so enjoyable, like a burnt almond or some other artificial flavour that I did not care for, and ruined my enjoyment of the chocolate.

Mecsa Osha Peruvian Jungle Chocolate 65%

This is the second of two chocolate bars from Mecsa Osha I've tried, the other being similar but at 75% cacao content. This chocolate bar, like the other, is produced from cacao beans from Peru, and is Fair Trade chocolate (meaning the local producers get paid more for their beans) and Organic. Mecsa Osha means "Sleeping Beauty" and refers to a mountain in the jungle of Peru where the beans are produced. The ingredient listing is fairly good, cocoa liquor, cane sugar, cocoa butter and soy lecithin.

How does it taste? Like the other one, the bar is very hard, you need a fair amount of strength, in your hands and teeth, perhaps because it is much thicker and less wide than other 100 g bars. This tasted better than the 75% bar, fruitier and less chalky. Ultimately, though, I wish to spare my teeth, and doubt that I would buy this bar again.

100% Georgian Cornel Juice

Having enjoyed their Wild Plum Juice and liked the Mulberry Juice, I decided to try this one that I had seen before, but thought strange. Strange, in the sense that the Cornel of the juice is Cornelian cherries, which look different than cherries I'm familiar with, in that these are elongated. Tasting the juice though, I see that it tastes very similar to European sour cherries (and like those I've bought before in glass jars). I would say that I enjoyed this as much as the Wild Plum Juice, and my beautiful Bride likes it best.

Sweet and Sour Fried Pork

I had been meaning to post this recipe for a long while, I'm really sorry for that, as I find this to be the best version of the Chinese Sweet and Sour Pork that I have ever eaten. And, it's likely better for you than eating at a regular Chinese buffet restaurant. You can substitute chicken for the pork, I'm sure it'll work well too. It's fairly easy to make as well.

Sweet and Sour Fried pork
300 g pork or chicken sliced in to 1 inch
1/2 tsp salt, for marinating
120 g sweet bell pepper, chopped into small pieces
1 medium onion, chopped into small pieces
1 cup orange or pineapple sliced into pieces
For the sauce:
1/3 cup ketchup
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp chinese cooking wine
1/4 cup red sugar
2 Tbsp soya sauce
1 Tbsp corn starch
For the batter:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 tsp salt

Mix together all ingredients of the sauce in a medium bowl.

Marinate the pork with salt; set aside.

Mix the batter ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Meanwhile, put enough oil for deep frying into a wok; put on medium-high heat.

Add the marinated pork into the batter and mix well.

Deep fry the pork when the oil is hot and put on paper to absorb any oil.

Put the sauce mixture into a clean wok. Cook the sauce, mixing, until the sauce become thick and boiling. Adjust seasonings.

Add the fried pork into the boiling sauce, mixing in quickly. Add the rest of the cut vegetables and mix well. When the vegetables are heated, the dish is ready for serving.